Wending our way South through traffic and weather. We’ve just sidestepped onto I-85 as we push on towards North Carolina on our way the Southeast Regional Folk Alliance conference in Montreat. The rhythm of the pines, just as they struck me the day I wrote the first words of Glom of Nit – except that day I know we were northbound (hence a left turn to go West) – flashing past in the hard won sunshine. We’ve been passing through alternate grey skies and black, fighting our way through vicious deluges but all of that’s in the rearview now and we actually have blue skies and watery sunshine searing through the trees above us, and clear roads ahead.
But of course, none of this will last. I think the rains catch up with us again around the time we roll into our friends’ house tonight – and we’ll probably fall asleep to the sounds of southern thunder and heavy rains all around us.
We started out the drive with a surprise gift from Heather’s beau – Richard found us a copy of the Last Unicorn soundtrack – only, since it was never released in America (ironic, since the band that wrote and performed the music was called America) the cover’s in German and we delighted in listening to Ein Litzte Einhorn and filling in faux German as we sing along.
SERFA promises to be stressful, but apparently not nearly as stressful as NERFA. With about 300 attendees, I figure there’s an order of magnitude fewer performers, presenters and various hangers-ons. Heather’s been sick and I’m in the throes of keeping all my exploits from going off the rails, so a tenth the size and speed of its northern counterpart means that SERFA sounds just about my speed.
In addition, a lot of the workshops and things sound a lot more interesting to me – a number of programs about our responsibilities as artists, building communities, bridging divides with music – in addition to the more typical “how do I get more bookings” and “social media, wtf dude?” fare of most music conferences…. I AM trying not to be judgey about the diversity on display – I feel bad that Rowan couldn’t join us because he was literally the only black performer on the lineup for the official showcases – and I have the suspicion – for the entire five day conference.
Ryan Adams croons out of the speakers “Gimme somethin’ good, gimme somethin’ good”, we push our way south, the sun’s getting stronger and even with heavy thoughts, it’s good to be on the highway.
1 thought on “Going to SERFAaaa ohhhhhoohhhh…. YEAH!”
Hi Rob, rain, oh pain( unless no rain, then even more pain), heard Ellicott City had a cloud that decided it really, really liked EC and parked itself there. Glub. Glub. In Silver Spring, nothing. Glad you had fun and heard good music down south. I suspect many in the audience at music things are musicians, just as many people at art shows are artists. Not to mention the crossover. Rick